Oxford University Press (OUP) says the winning word highlights how Australia’s most globally connected generation values deeper real-world connections.
Oxford has named ‘friend’ as its Australian Children’s Word of the Year for 2024, reflecting how the country’s Gen Alpha seems to value deeper connections with the people around them, despite being more digitally and globally connected than any other generation before them.
Using data collected through the online program Writing Legends, which aims to improve students’ writing skills, OUP analysed over 25,600 children’s stories and almost 2.3 million words written by mostly mid- to late-primary school students across the country, and found that students are writing more about the value of their relationships with family and friends, the complexities around friendships, and the ways in which they connect with others.
Words such as ‘friend’, ‘hope’, ‘love’, ‘play’ and ‘game’ all appeared in higher frequencies in 2024 compared to 2023, with other similarly associated words, such as ‘companion’ and ‘friendship, and slang words like ‘bestie’ and ‘bff’, experiencing significant percentage increases in usage as well.
Dr Damon Thomas, Senior Lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Queensland, said this trend was likely related to the loneliness felt by their predecessors.
“According to the most recent Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, the tables have turned with young people, particularly Gen Z, experiencing a steady rise in loneliness, making them feel more alone and isolated than those aged 65 and older,” he said.
“It’s completely understandable that the next generation would want to avoid the physical and mental issues that they’ve seen arise from such social isolation.”
Ms Lee Walker, Director of Publishing at Oxford University Press, highlighted the top themes prevalent in this year’s research findings.
“It was clear that connection was at the heart of students’ stories – a theme that stretches to our chosen slang word of the year, ‘sigma’, which was also on our UK 2024 shortlist. With this young generation being so digitally connected, it came as no surprise that their stories also touched on society and learning, with students writing about their knowledge and topics they’ve learnt about,” Ms Walker said.
“In addition, while students’ imagination and interest in creating adventure stories were evident, pollution and the environment continue to be issues that they are concerned about, particularly the impact on animals and the ocean.”
Other words shortlisted for Oxford’s Australian Children’s Word of the Year for 2024 included: ‘fact’, ‘leader’ and ‘superpower’.
The words collected as part of Australian Children’s Word of the Year have been added to the Oxford Australian Children’s language Corpus – a collection of texts which records the development of children’s linguistics over time and informs Oxford University Press’ research and assessment of children’s language trends.
To read the full report on Oxford’s Australian Children’s Word of the Year, visit oup.com.au/cwoty.
